One Night (Years Later)
by corikane
Summary: Henry has talked his mothers into a camping trip and on their last night, the two women finally find the time to talk. (No copyright infringement intended.)


**A/N: A little one-shot in answer to the show... and, no, I still haven't watched the finale but I've been spoiled plenty. I hope you like.**

* * *

"I can't believe Henry talked us into this - but it was so much fun," Emma said looking beyond the campfire at her dark-haired companion.

Henry had disappeared into his tent about half an hour ago, saying he was bone-tired as he should be. It had been a long day.

"You just can't believe that I came with, sleeping on the cold, hard ground and not even complaining about it," Regina gave back with a good-natured smile.

"That too," Emma agreed with a grin.

"Well, it's... probably the last time we would be able to do something like this. With Henry going to college in another two weeks. And he wanted to do this and... well, I can rarely say 'no' to our son."

"Rarely? Make that never," Emma said as she kneeled on the ground unfolding the blanket she'd been sitting on so far and laying it close to the fire.

"Are you saying, I'm spoiling him?" Regina asked in mock outrage. Emma just smiled at her in answer. "What're you doing anyway? Are you cold?"

"No, I'm just... getting a little more comfortable," Emma said and lay down on the blanket, facing Regina.

"This set-up is actually more comfortable than when we were at Neverland, remember?" the mayor waved at the three tents standing not too far away.

"How could I forget? But Henry's life was at stake then," Emma argued.

"You know, I was a pretty outdoorsy girl. I mean, I never really went camping because my mother would never have allowed it but... I did spent a night in the forest once," Regina gave back indignantly.

"Really? Tell me."

"It wasn't... well, my mother and I had a fight that day about... something or other. We fought a lot, usually about my inappropriate desire for independence. I was mad and I decided to run away," she related.

"How old were you?"

"14, I think. I packed some provisions, a blanket, thank goodness, and ran into the forest. I wasn't unprepared, I knew how to make a fire and when night fell I did that and sat... seething for quite awhile, imagining how my mother would find my room empty and be terribly worried. Only, she wasn't. I'm pretty sure she had seen me leave and put a safety-spell on me. I never saw a single animal that night. I still got frightened, of course, and I returned to the castle the next morning, very early."

"Did your mother wait for you in the hall to scold you?" Emma asked.

"No, I didn't see her until breakfast. She pretended like she hadn't even noticed I'd been gone and we never talked about it. And I never ran away again," Regina ended and stared into the fire. Her face seemed frozen in an attempt to show little emotions but Emma could read her better by now. She could see the hurt over the distance that seperated them and the time Regina had held it in, never talking about it.

"Your mother," she started saying and attempted to push herself up on her arm. She flinched as a sudden pain shot through her left side.

"Are you all right? You... you fell pretty hard when you slipped off that fallen tree trunk, didn't you?"

"It's just a bruise," Emma said nonchalantly, even though it had actually been the reason she couldn't sit on the tree trunk anymore. And since she didn't want this night to end just yet she had opted for this solution, taking the weight off her left side by lying on her right.

"Hmmm," Regina made. "Of course, if you hadn't insisted on racing our son through the wilderness this afternoon..."

"I did not insist, he challenged me," Emma argued.

"And like your parents' daughter you can't resist a challenge to behave like a six-year-old," Regina scolded, adding one of her infamous eye-rolls.

"It was fun."

"Of course, it was, dear. But you're not 29 anymore, so you might want to exhibit a little bit more caution from now on."

"You sound like you're worried about me," Emma said with a slight smile.

"Well, Henry won't be here to keep an eye on you from now on, so I presume that the task of keeping you out of trouble will fall on me in the future... since you broke up with Hook, and all," Regina said. She watched Emma closely as she said that last bit and was almost sorry she'd said it as the blonde's gaze shifted into the fire. But then Emma looked up at her again with an open almost challenging expression.

"It's been almost half a year now," Emma said as if that was news to either one of them. It wasn't. Things had happened since then: Hook had left Storybrooke, her parents had had yet another baby, their fifth including Emma, Henry had graduated from high school top of his class - and yet, Emma and Regina had never talked about Emma's breakup from the pirate or about what had let to it, what had let her to do it.

They looked at each other now in silent contemplation of whether this would be the night to talk about this, to talk about other things, too.

"May I ask why? Why you broke up with Killian? Everybody seemed to think that you were going to get married next but then... it was over," Regina said, answering the unuttered question between them: it was time to talk.

"We were together for about six years... it's so... I mean, even for me, it was strange... to end it. It's just... Things were so crazy in the beginning. All the adventures, everything that happened and so quickly... things changed. Neal died and I found... that I needed someone to love - or maybe I needed someone who loved me. I'm not sure because I never really thought about it. I just let it happen, you know?"

Regina nodded, she had felt like that once.

"And then... we were a couple and it was good, it felt good. Things got less crazy. I mean, we still had our occasional adventure but there were also times when nothing much happened," Emma reminisced and from the look on Regina's face so did she. She was looking into the fire now and Emma could let her gaze linger on the other woman's beauty. She'd gotten older but that seemed to only add to her appeal. She was still stunning, sitting on a fallen tree trunk like on a throne, but like a more benevolent queen, nobody evil home anymore.

Emma smiled at the thought, then continued:

"I settled down. I wanted peace and rest and... just to have a family."

"And yet you never had another child...with Hook," Regina noted.

"No. He wanted them but... I stalled. I never felt that I wanted another child, probably because I felt that I could never love another child like I love Henry. You understand that, don't you?"

"Of course, I do. With all the things we've gone through, the battles we had to fight - often against each other - I never felt that... I needed another child," Regina agreed.

"Exactly, but try explaining that to the man who loves you and wants to have his own children with you. It was difficult... and I think we would have fought over this and... other things... until we were old and gray. And I didn't want the rest of my life fighting with the person I should be happily ever after with," Emma ended the tale, even though they both knew it wasn't the whole story, the whole truth. Still, it had been part of the problem Emma had had with Hook.

"And now?" Regina asked.

Emma merely shrugged.

"I bet your mother has already invited you to the Enchanted Forest to introduce you to all the eligible princes in all the kingdoms," Regina scoffed.

Emma smiled.

"Indeed she has."

"And are you going?" Regina asked. She wasn't looking at Emma now but at the earth at her feet.

"Not for that reason but I will be spending some time there when Henry has started college. Just a vacation, though. don't worry, I won't abandon my post as sheriff," she teased but by the frown Regina was sporting this had actually been on the other woman's mind.

"I'm relieved," Regina said trying to match Emma's light tone but failed.

Emma watched her for a moment then picked up a stick and pushed it into their campfire stoking the flames. She flinched again as the movement hurt her side.

"That bruise hurts, doesn't it?" Regina asked but Emma merely shrugged noncommitally. "May I have a look at it? I'll have some ointments and other home-made remedies with me, maybe something that will ease the pain."

"Okay, sure," Emma agreed and Regina rose from her seat. She came over to where Emma lay and kneeled behind the blonde. Emma looked at her over her shoulder as Regina tentatively pushed her jacket and shirt up. She could see that Regina was clamping her jaw together, the muscles there twitched as she looked at Emma's left lower back.

"How does it look?" she asked quietly.

"Red, leaning toward purple. I think I have something that could help," Regina said, looking up and into Emma's eyes. Their gaze held for a couple of moments too long to be called casual. "I'll get it," Regina then said and rose to walk to her tent.

Emma's eyes followed her until she disappeared into it, then they turned to the fire. The flames seemed to heat her body almost uncomfortably now but she didn't move away from it. Instead she poked her stick into it again, stoking the flames.

Regina came back a few minutes later, holding a small white jar.

"Oil of Olay? That is your remedy?" Emma asked as she noticed the manufacturer's name on it.

Regina sat back down behind her and opened the jar. She held it towards Emma's face.

"Smell it," she said.

Emma leaned toward the jar and smelled at the content once, she drew her head back but then smelled it again.

"That's not Oil of Olay," she said.

"No, it's one of my own wonderously effective recipes. Guaranteed to not lessen any wrinkles you might have but it might help with your bruise," she said. "Do you want to... apply it yourself?" she then asked with a light blush.

"I can't really see... the bruise, so...," Emma answered with her own blush which added to the already hightened color of her cheeks and body.

"Sit up and turn to the fire a little more so I can properly see it," Regina asked of her and Emma did as she was told.

Regina pushed Emma's shirt up to the point where Emma's bra ended.

"Hold it, please," she instructed and then started applying the salve on Emma's lower left back. "I'll have to massage it in a little. It will heat up and you'll know it's working."

"Yeah, I can already feel that," Emma said.

"That's just my hand, Emma," Regina told her with an adorable little smile on her lips. "The ointment has to seep in before you can feel it's effect."

Emma laughed a little embarrassed. She looked over her shoulder as Regina applied more of her magical remedy.

"I sometimes forget," she mused and Regina looked at her questioningly. "How good you are at this. The... herbs, the little concoctions you brew."

"That's all part of being a witch, Emma."

"Yeah, I sometimes forget that you are a witch. I mean... I know you got powers, I've seen them often enough. But most of the time, you're just Regina, Henry's other mom," Emma explained.

"It's been awhile since our last adventure. Should I throw a fireball at you every now and then to remind you who I am?" Regina teased.

"I think I know pretty well who you are," Emma answered, leaning back and into Regina body a little. Their eyes locked once again, holding, staring and Emma felt her pulse quicken.

"That should be enough," Regina said and took her hand from Emma's skin, leaving a momentary coolness to the skin while the ointment heated the bruise from within.

"Then I guess you can take your hand away."

Regina laughed a little.

"I already have," she told Emma and they were both giggling.

Emma let go of her shirt and Regina pulled it over Emma's exposed side.

"I think I need to rest my back some," Emma said, looking at the trunk she'd been sitting on earlier.

"That'll probably hurt. Come on, I'll sit against it and you can lean against me," Regina suggested easily.

She sat against the fallen tree and Emma settled between her legs, leaning into her. They sat like that for awhile, mostly just feeling all the delicious ways their bodies touched. It was unusual for them to... indulge in this kind of contact but it wasn't the first time they'd been doing it. It wasn't uncomfortable or awkward at all.

"Is this better?" Regina asked quietly at Emma's left ear. She pulled Emma's hair back and the sheriff turned toward her. She nodded.

Regina slipped her right arm around Emma's middle and her hand came to rest on the left side of her abdomen, simply lying there. It spread another wave of heat through Emma's body and she couldn't even blame the fire this time. She entwined her fingers with Regina's.

"So many things have changed this last year," she said thoughtfully.

"I know and I remember it all," Regina answered. Her voice was little more than a whisper as she continued: "I remember the way we kept warm that night in Narnia when the White Witch had kidnapped your little brother. I remember New Year's when Hook was looking for you all over the place while you walked me home and then kissed me at midnight on the steps of the mansion." She sighed. "I remember when you told me that you needed time to sort out your life."

"I've never cheated on Killian, Regina. I didn't... want to have to," Emma said.

Regina nodded in understanding as Emma turned further and their lips met. But it wasn't enough and it wasn't comfortable and Emma pulled away. She turned around fully, kneeling between Regina's legs now. She put her hands on Regina's cheeks, leaning foward.

"I know this is crazy," she said but Regina interrupted any attempt at a possible explanation for what was happening between them with a shake of her head.

"Not so crazy," she said. "The moment we met, we already had strong feelings for each other, our emotions were running high. They were fear and hate but..."

"Did you really hate me?"

Regina nodded.

"Yes, with every fiber of my being," she acknowledged.

"Those are strong emotions," Emma agreed. "There was always passion between us," she mused, rubbing her cheek against Regina's.

"Whether it was ice-cold or burning hot."

Their lips came together in an outburst of the passion they'd been talking about, the passion they'd been feeling for each other for quite awhile now. It wasn't the first time they acknowledged it, but it was the first time they gave into it fully and unabashed and for endless minutes.

"Regina?" Emma murmured into their kiss as they were about to come up for air.

"Hm?" came from the dark-haired woman who was not yet ready to break the contact but felt that she had to. She bit into Emma's lower lip and they necked lightly for some more minutes until Emma pulled away from Regina's oh-too-delicious lips.

"Will you join me in my tent tonight?" she asked looking deeply into the chocolat-y heat of Regina eyes.

"I will but," and Regina put a finger to Emma's lips. "There'll be no funny business. Henry's practically sleeping next to us," she told the blonde who pouted as Regina took her finger away.

"We could be very quiet," Emma suggested.

"Can you be quiet?"

"I can, very quiet," Emma assured the other woman.

"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard from you," Regina said with a raise of an eyebrow. "When we're finally going to...," she started saying and her eyes bored seductively into Emma's as she searched for the right words.

"Do the do?" the blonde suggested.

"Make love," Regina emphasized cupping Emma's face in both of her hands. "It's going to be very loud. I want you to hear me, I want to call out your name. Do you understand?"

Emma swallowed and nodded.

"Yeah," she said breathlessly and Regina smiled at the response.

"Good. But I still want to... sleep with you tonight. Will you hold me?"

Emma smiled and chuckled a little. She felt utterly overwhelmed by all the feelings she experienced now which she had held back for so long.

"Yeah, i want to hold you, Regina," she answered and they kissed again, slowly, lovingly.

They rose from their places on the ground at some point, Regina helping Emma up and then extinguishing the fire with water from a cantine. They walked to Emma's tent hand in hand and disappeared into it.

* * *

Henry was lying awake. He had watched his mothers for awhile after he'd heard Regina go to her tent but had returned to Emma's side. He'd feigned fatigue just so they could finally talk to each other because he'd known there was something going on between them. He'd probably known before they had, had seen the looks shared between them for years. He'd been confused at times, angry at others because he had liked Killian a lot and had found another father in the man. But it hadn't been any use at all, like it was always supposed to be this way between his moms. He hadn't been able to listen to their conversation but their body language had once again been loud and clear - they loved each other. And Henry was happy about it.

He'd seen them kiss but had retreated back fully into his tent when things got too heated for comfort. And now he was lying awake, wondering if it had been such a good idea to have had them come out here with him just to make them talk to each other. He didn't want to listen but for some time he lay seemingly breathless. Minutes passed as his mothers settled down together in Emma's tent but then it grew quiet and he finally let out an explosive breath.

He grinned.

His mothers were finally together, they had kissed and would kiss for a long time to come.


End file.
